Workshop Details
Protein Electrostatics
07/14/2008 - 07/18/2008
Meeting Description:

Electrostatic forces govern many key biochemical processes, including all of energy transduction (e.g. catalysis, proton transport, electron transfer, ion homeostasis, etc). Despite 30 years of focused efforts to elucidate the structural basis of electrostatic effects in proteins, this remains a very challenging problem. It has become increasingly clear that polarization, structural relaxation, charge fluctuations, dielectric breakdown, water penetration, and coupling between ionizable sites, all contribute to the stabilization of charge inside proteins. A true multi-scale approach that considers processes ranging from quantum mechanical effects to conformational fluctuations in biological time scales will be needed to make progress in this field. Many novel computational methods have been developed recently that can improve our ability to treat electrostatic effects. However, each of these approaches considers a limited range of factors. Furthermore, developments have been hampered by the lack of experimental data that can provide clear benchmarks for validating the different approaches. The purpose of this workshop will be to bring together experimentalists, theorists and simulators with shared interests in electrostatic effects in water-soluble and membrane proteins. One aim of this workshop will be to identify the critical areas where experiments are needed to obtain physical insight to guide improvements to computational models and data to benchmark these models. Another aim will be to compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of different simulation frameworks used to calculate equilibrium constants for ion binding, pKa values, redox Ems, and the effects of pH and salt on conformational transitions. The ultimate goal is to lower the barriers for collaboration amongst and between theory, computation, and experiment.

Meeting Venue:

Telluride Intermediate School
725 West Colorado Telluride CO 81435

Protein Electrostatics Registered Meeting Participants:
Participant Organization
Allen, Toby University of California, Davis
Baptista, Antonio Instituto de Tecnologia Quimica e Biologica, Unive
Brooks, Charles University of Michigan
Case, David The Scripps Research Institute
Cui, Qiang UW-Madison
Fenley, Marcia Florida State University
Garcia, Angel Rensselaer
Garcia-Moreno, Bertrand Johns Hopkins University
Gong, Haipeng University of Chicago
Gunner, Marilyn CCNY
Hall, Kathleen Washington UnivSchMed
Jensen, Jan University of Copenhagen
Makhatadze, George Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Nielsen, Jens University College Dublin
Parson, William University of Washington
Raleigh, Daniel State University of New York
Roux, Benoit Univ of Chicago
Simonson, Thomas Ecole Polytechnique
Song, Yifan Physics Dept of CCNY
Tajkhorshid, Emad University of Illinois
Voth, Gregory A. University of Utah
Warshel, Arieh usc
White, Stephen Univ. of Calif. at Irvine

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